Our recommendations

We have organised our recommendations into two groups – recommendations directed at all public organisations (or those with governance responsibilities for public organisations with settlement commitments), and recommendations directed at the public organisations we specifically looked at for this work. Recommendations are numbered according to the order they appear in this report.

To improve accountability for fulfilling Treaty settlements, we recommend that:

• all public organisations with settlement commitments review how they plan to meet and monitor their commitments (Recommendation 2);
• all public organisations with settlement commitments improve the information that their annual reports provide about their progress in meeting their commitments, including by clearly explaining:
  • the types of commitments that they are responsible for (for example, what proportion are land redress or relational redress);
  • what different status updates mean; and
  • their achievements and any significant settlement issues (Recommendation 7);
• responsible Ministers, the Public Service Commission, and the governing bodies of Crown entities, local authorities, and other non-core Crown agencies with settlement commitments strengthen expectations on public organisations about meeting their commitments in performance agreements with chief executives and in other relevant mechanisms (Recommendation 3); and
• the Public Service Commission and the governing bodies of Crown entities, local authorities, and other non-core Crown agencies strengthen ongoing development for chief executives so that they can lead their organisations to effectively meet settlement commitments (Recommendation 5).

To strengthen system leadership and improve the overall integrity of the Treaty settlement system, we recommend that:

• Te Puni Kōkiri, working with other public organisations as appropriate, develop a framework to guide public organisations to achieve settlements' holistic intent (Recommendation 1);
• Land Information New Zealand works to ensure that there is a system in place so that right of first refusal memorials are correctly placed on land titles (Recommendation 4);
• Te Puni Kōkiri consider improvements to the quality and accuracy of the information that Te Haeata collects and reports (Recommendation 6);
• Te Puni Kōkiri and the Public Service Commission work together, and with others as needed, to consider how to extend He Korowai Whakamana to relevant Crown entities, local authorities, and other non-core Crown agencies, to ensure that:
  • those agencies have adequate advice, guidance, and support to meet their commitments; and
  • Te Puni Kōkiri collects information about the status of those agencies' commitments (Recommendation 8); and
• Te Puni Kōkiri regularly assess the public sector's progress with meeting settlement commitments, whether it is achieving each settlement's holistic intention, and any significant risks and achievements, and:
  • regularly report that assessment to the Minister for Māori Crown Relations and other responsible Ministers; and
  • report on those matters annually to the Māori Affairs Select Committee (Recommendation 9).